


This Way Out

by Secret Staircase (elwing_alcyone)



Category: Zero: Akai Chou | Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Genre: Comment Fic, Community: fic_promptly, F/F, Not Quite Gen, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-19
Updated: 2011-07-19
Packaged: 2017-10-21 19:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/229127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elwing_alcyone/pseuds/Secret%20Staircase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sae never really expected they'd try to leave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Way Out

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**fic_promptly**](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/), for the prompt: _[Sae/Yae, making a run for it.](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/70839.html?thread=3514807&format=light#cmt3514807)_

Light chased light across the river's surface the day Itsuki told them what he had discovered. It sent ribbons of gold rippling over Yae's face and hair, and that was what Sae watched. She saw Yae's eyes getting wider, her mouth hanging open; she felt Yae's hand growing tighter around hers with every word Itsuki said.

Sae didn't think it was so awful, what he was saying. She supposed everyone had to die in the end, but not everybody got to become a butterfly, so if the ritual could let her do that, it was a good thing, as far as Sae could tell. But Yae looked horrified, and anything that could upset her sister that way couldn't be good.

For a while after Itsuki had finished explaining, the four of them sat in silence, listening to the burbling of the river. Sae looked round at the others. Itsuki looked as sick and frightened as Yae, but Mutsuki just looked uncomfortable. Sae caught his eye and pulled a face, and that made him grin uncertainly. Yae and Itsuki didn't notice.

"Let's run away," Yae said suddenly. "They can't make us do the ritual if we aren't here, so let's just go."

Itsuki stared at her. "Go where?"

It was a good question. They sat on the edge of the village; none of them had ever been further than this, and it was difficult to imagine what lay beyond. There was only one point of reference, and Yae pounced on it. "Let's go and live with your friend Ryozo. We can learn to be carpenters and travel the countryside building houses like his father."

Itsuki frowned. Yae was fidgeting impatiently, as if she thought they should get up and leave this very moment. Yae was like that when an idea took her. Sometimes she even got up in the middle of the night. It made Sae smile to think of it, but Yae and Itsuki were still unhappy, so she tried to keep her expression serious.

"We couldn't run away now," Itsuki said slowly. "They'd find us and bring us back, and we'd never get another chance. But... if we waited... and planned carefully..."

Sae leaned against Yae's shoulder, comfortable there in the warm sunlight, letting her mind wander. It was just another of Yae's ideas, that burst across their lives like lightning and then were gone. There'd been a hundred like them. It would be forgotten tomorrow.

***

But the idea of escaping hadn't been forgotten. Perhaps it was because Itsuki had been there, and Itsuki was a planner, tenacious and methodical where Yae was hasty. Perhaps Sae had simply underestimated how much the idea of the ritual had disturbed her sister. They'd never disagreed strongly on anything before.

At first they'd all planned to flee together, before Itsuki and Mutsuki's ritual, but as the time drew near, it became clear Mutsuki would not be strong enough; he'd always been weaker than any of the others, even Sae. The plan changed then, but it still wasn't forgotten, and if Sae had been telling herself that in the end they wouldn't go through with it, by the night of the ceremony she knew she was wrong. Yae really did intend to run away.

Itsuki had told them to wait in the Kureha Shrine, and they'd been there for nearly an hour. The timing was precarious; if they left too early, it became more likely that someone would notice their absence and come looking for them, but if they left it too late, they might miss their chance altogether.

At one point, some of the priests had come up to the shrine to purify themselves and pray for the ritual's success. Sae and Yae had hidden behind the altar, clinging to each other, and Sae had been able to feel Yae's heartbeat every moment until the priests left. They had remained undiscovered.

The waiting drew out. Yae was restless, opening and closing her hands, frequently going to peer out through the lattice at the shrine door.

"Do you remember that day in the forest?" Sae said.

"You mean when Itsuki told us the truth about the ritual?"

"Yes," Sae said, "but not that. We stayed behind after Itsuki and Mutsuki were gone. We promised we'd always be together, remember?"

"Of course I do." Yae took Sae's and and laced their fingers together. "And we will be."

Sae nodded. She could still remember the light tracing water-patterns on Yae's face. "But at the time I was thinking," she said, not quite daring to meet her sister's eyes as she said this, "that if I have to die... I wouldn't mind, as long as it's you doing it. If we get caught, remember that too. I – " _I want you to kill me,_ she thought, but she didn't dare say it. "I'll forgive you, no matter what happens."

"Don't think about that. We're going to make it." She kissed Sae's cheek, and her breath was warm. "We'll never have to worry about the ritual again."

 _I don't want to run,_ Sae thought, resting her forehead against Yae's. _I want to stay and do the ritual. I want to be a butterfly. I want..._

But before she could say any of that, the door behind the altar shuddered and began to fall open of its own accord. Sae could smell stale air and dry earth.

"This is it," Yae whispered, her fingers painfully tight around Sae's. "Itsuki must have unlocked it."

Sae stared into that yawning darkness with dismay. _No, I don't want to._ What was waiting for her at the other end of that passage, except a lifetime of weakness and fear and regret?

"Yae," she said urgently, "I don't – "

But Itsuki was already coming in through the shrine doors, breathless from running up the stairs, and it was too late.

"Quick," he hissed, "go! It won't be long before they come looking for us."

Yae pulled Sae through the door, down the stairway, and then they were running through the passage, and Sae still couldn't think of how to protest.

 _But maybe they'll catch us,_ she thought, as the passage opened into a cave, the cave into forest. _Or maybe I could get back to the village somehow,_ she thought, as Itsuki told them not to look back; he didn't understand. _If I did that, it would be all right,_ she thought as they ran between the dark trees, into the unknown. _Yae would come back for me. She'd have to..._


End file.
